text: *2002: Jean LeRay Award by the European Society for Biomaterials for outstanding contributions to the biomaterials field as a young scientist 
  *2007: Pfizer Award for Clinical Research
  *2007: START Innovation Award
  *2011: George Winter Award by the European Society for Biomaterials
  *2011: Gold Medal of Scientific Merit from the City of Guimarães
  *2014: Clemson Award for Contributions to the Literature by the Society for Biomaterials (SFB, USA) 
  *2014: Nomination as a Commander (Comendador, a kind of knighthood) of the Military Order of Saint James of the Sword by the Portuguese President of the Republic
  *2015: International Fellow of Tissue Engineering of Regenerative Medicine (FTERM), Boston
  *2016: Induction as a foreigner member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) of the USA
  *2018: IET A F Harvey Prize – Institute of Engineering and Technology
  *2018: Induction as Fellow of the European Alliance for Medical and Biological Engineering and Science (EAMBES)
  *2018: UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences
  *2018: Induction as Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE)
  *2018: Honoris Causa degree awarded by the University Politechnica of Bucharest (UPB)
  *2019: Career Achievement Award of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society, TERMIS-EU
  *2020: Gold Medal of the City of Braga
  *2022: Klaas de Groot Award by the European Society for Biomaterials